Sunday, 16 June 2013

Does your employer offer you a good benefits package?

I've had a bit of an awakening this week as I read a recent report
commissioned by income protection provider Unum called 'Keeping Pace? Financial
insecurity in the modern workforce'. I've said before that I enjoy my work and
I know I'm lucky to be with a public sector employer as this means I have good
stability in my job but what I realised I have taken for granted are all the
great employer benefits offered to me.

When Mumsnet confirmed they would like me to write a post about my
employer provided benefits I spoke to a few blogger friends, mentioning I was
excited to write this post. I was startled when one friend, who is employed
full-time, commented that she could not apply for this as she did not get any
benefits in her job. Then another mentioned that being self-employed she had
very limited benefits offered to her. Of course, not everyone is as lucky as me
in their employment, I forgot this.

These comments from just a couple of my friends certainly match the
findings in the Unum report that there is a significant gap between what a
modern day workforce requires and what is provided by many companies. The
demographics of workers has changed in the last thirty years and now we have
more female, part-time, non-British and disabled employees working in the UK.
The disparity of the benefits offered and what the modern employee requires can
be vast. The report found that today fewer employers offer generous pension schemes and occupational sick pay. Again I can count myself fortunate as I benefit from both of these, I have a final salary pension scheme and a generous provision for sickness.

For the last nine years I have worked within Human Resources (HR) at a
large, modern University and this means that I have a full suite of benefits
available to me, so many that if I was to just try to reel them off the top of
my head to you now I would forget at least half as there are so many. Now I
don't know if some of my positive attitude comes from the fact that I work in
HR and therefore I know about the benefits and also I am willing to recognise
all relevant offers as benefits. I suppose it might be easy for staff in other
areas to dismiss benefits such as flexitime in regards to working hours,
wellbeing events and free book loans as they are non-financial.

Working in HR I have had input into ensuring that staff know about the
benefits on offer to them and we have developed a one hour welcome meeting with
HR for all new staff within their first week of employment. At this they are
introduced to our intranet site and shown where all the benefits are
detailed, this ensures they have that knowledge of what they can access from a
very early stage in their career.
At about the three month point all staff attend a central induction
event and one of the sessions is around the employment experience. This is an
interactive session where staff talk about the benefits they are aware of and
share ideas between the fifty attendees.
The facilitators then draw their attention to benefits they might not be
aware of, both those with a financial implication such as discounted bus fares,
meals and childcare vouchers and those without, like the on site multi-faith
centre and flexible working arrangements.

The University realise that they need to do more to help long-term staff recognise the full suite of benefits available to them and currently there are talks about how this awareness can be raised.

It is not just in writing that these benefits looks good, in the nine years I have been with my employer I have been on maternity leave, taken parental leave, worked from home and used the flexible working arrangements to change my working pattern on at least three different occasions. I have also had a six week period off sick and gone back to work on a staged basis. They paid for me to Undertake my Ma in Human Resources and gave me time to undertake this. The only thing that they do not seem to offer that Unum have recommended employers should consider is income protection, this would mean if I could not attend work due to critical illness or such I would continue to be paid and could have my mind at ease about continuing with my caring responsibilities.

To be honest I have never heard of an employer offering this, none of mine have that I'm aware of and at one point I worked for Pepsi. My husband tells me that his current employer offers this income protection insurance though so it is obviously becoming more common.
You don't have to tell me that I am lucky to be employed by my University, I fully realise this.

Do you know what your employer is offering you? Unum would like to encourage all Mumsnetters in employment to #askHR about what employer provided benefits they are currently entitled to, and to report back on whether their current employer provided benefits package is fit for purpose.

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